The Osthoff Resort

I have two besties from college – I’ll call them J and M because they’re not internet people. Once upon a time, we used to be very good about taking annual trips somewhere. Then, life got a little busy for them as they have 5 kids between the two of them…and life was just starting for me. (Seriously, when they started having kids I pretty much just started my relationship with my now-husband.) I’ll just say that life MASSIVELY got in the way for all of us, and I’ll take up most of the blame as I (being the single one) could have rallied to get them to go on more vacations together. But I didn’t; however, I think they still like me. 😉 Anyway, J and M’s kids got older, so they were ready (aka more vocal) to take trips again….just as I was starting the whole parenting thing. LOL. They’re both really fantastic moms, so when The Osthoff was presented I (very reluctantly) said okay, knowing that they would help out with The Kid and The Girl. After a gazillion years, we managed to coordinate our schedules back in July to spend a few days up in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin with us girls, our kids and our husbands.

OMG, we all had the best time.

The resort was beautiful (“It’s like the set of Dirty Dancing“, J kept saying as the rest of us giggled in agreement) and a great setting for us to relax, bond, let the kids play and do our adult thing (wine). I am sitting here typing thinking of the mornings at the beach; babbling about nothing and everything; getting honked at by the locals while in the Walmart parking lot (hint: if you don’t want this to happen to you, don’t idle your car in the middle of an aisle….with an Illinois license plate. Wisconsinites don’t have a high tolerance for Illinoisans, ha!); relaxing at the spa; being forgotten about at the spa (but still getting to sit there sans children, so it still worked out in my favor); getting stuck on the elevator for about 5 minutes (with at least 2 people in our group coming off the elevator with tears of fear in their eyes); meeting the most outgoing girl named Paris (not that Paris) at the bar on our last night there; going on the hunt with J and M’s kids (just their kids) to find chicken tenders (I admit that I was the one that wanted them); M moonlighting each night as our condo’s DJ with her iPhone and Spotify account (“Diana would like to dedicate this next song to her bestie J…” [blares N’Sync’s “Bye Bye Bye”]) and many, many other little vacation snippets. If you truly want to bond and make memories with friends, forget Girls Night Out and plan a trip together – that’s truly the better way to “break bread”.

Almost there! Took a detour through Belgium….Belgium, Wisconsin

Here!

With his girlfriend

They’re both in their happy place

I can’t remember what was funny about this

Sitting poolside with The Girl. Photo taken by M

My people.

That one night everyone went to get ice cream, and I stayed behind to put The Girl to bed. It was weird to have the thirty or so minutes to myself, but I kinda liked it. 🙂The End.